1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides a mobile station, an access point, a base station, a gateway apparatus, and a handshake method thereof for use in a wireless network framework. More particularly, the present invention provides a mobile station, an access point, a base station, a gateway apparatus, and a handshake method thereof for use in a wireless network framework comprising a WiMAX network and a WiFi network.
2. Descriptions of the Related Art
With the continuous advancement in science and technology, higher requirements are being imposed on communications. Nowadays, more importance is being placed on the convenience, as well as the quality of communications. Among the various communication means, wireless communications are preferred because of their mobility and lack of reliance on the physical communication network wiring. Therefore, wireless-communication-enabled mobile products such as mobile phones, notebook computers and the like are gaining more popularity over recent years and have become the mainstream products in the consumer electronics market.
However, due to the relative signal strength or other factors, mobile products operating in a wireless network environment will inevitably perform a handover over between two networks adopting different wireless network standards to maintain a certain quality of service (QoS). For instance, a mobile product may perform the handover from a WiFi wireless network to a WiMAX wireless network or vice versa.
In more detail, a mobile product operating on a WiMAX wireless network or a WiFi wireless network may be considered as a client. When logging onto the WiMAX/WiFi wireless network for its service, the client must be authenticated as a legal client, usually through an authentication mechanism in the WiMAX/WiFi wireless network. For example, when the client is moving away from the coverage of the WiMAX wireless network towards the coverage of the WiFi wireless network, the signal strength of the WiMAX wireless network will fade away while that of the WiFi wireless network will gradually become stronger for the client. Therefore, to maintain a certain quality of service, the client will perform the handover from the WiMAX wireless network to the WiFi wireless network. Because both the WiMAX wireless network and the WiFi wireless network have respective authentication mechanisms, the client will be subjected to an authentication procedure of the WiFi wireless network before it can perform the handover to the WiFi wireless network, which may substantially prolong the time needed for the client's handover to the WiFi wireless network. Similarly, when the client is performing the handover from the WiFi wireless network to the WiMAX wireless network, the client will also be subjected to an authentication procedure of the WiMAX wireless network before it can handover to the WiMAX wireless network, which may substantially prolong the time needed for the client's handover to the WiMAX wireless network. Consequently, the service efficiency of the overall wireless network is degraded.
According to the aforementioned descriptions, a substantial portion of time is spent in the authentication procedure when the client performs handover. Accordingly, it is important to effectively reduce the authentication time to, thereby, improve the service efficiency of the overall wireless network.